A Life Less Zombie-Filled

Rating: 3/10 (19 October 2003)

I liked the first twenty minutes or so of this movie: in particular, the various scenes of an empty London were well done, though I must admit that even by that point I'd drifted away from the story enough to spend most of those scenes wondering how they'd shot them.
After that, though, it all went downhill.
The main problem I had, other than the confused script that couldn't really decide whether it was a zombie movie or a weak road movie that just happened to include zombies (even though there seemed to be obvious 'homages' to many of the most famous movies of the zombie genre) was that the characters were dumb and caused many of their own problems, leaving me with little sympathy for them. Oh, and the teenage girl wasn't exactly the strongest of actors either.
SPOILERS: First, when faced with zombies carrying a disease that's contagious from contact with a small amount of blood, what do our heroes do? Well, the character who's determined to survive at all costs chops them up with a machete, just to make sure that the blood goes everywhere. Then when they have the choice between taking a tunnel under the Thames or crossing on a bridge, they take the tunnel and, surprise, surprise, nasty things are waiting down there. Then one of them catches the disease by being stupid. Then later when one of them is being chased by a group of soldiers, the soldiers totally forget even the most basic military discipline and let him pick them off one by one.
The only other decent parts of the movie were the rats and the scene where the soldiers were fighting off a zombie attack in the night. More of that, less stupid people doing stupid things, and a decent ending, and it would have been worth watching.
NO MORE SPOILERS: So, while this might have made an OK TV movie in the British post-apocalyptic tradition, I really don't think it was up for theatrical release... and, while they did a decent job of the cinematography considering the cost of the camera they shot it on, I'm certainly glad I didn't have to watch the low-res digital video images in a cinema. Increasingly I'm coming to feel that 'Trainspotting' was a one-off success for Boyle and he's never going to make a good movie again.